Improving
by ILM
Summary: Now it's a conscious step they take - because life is easier when there's possibility.


Soooo.... How've you been? *looks around sheepishly* I've been gone a while, it seems. My only defence is that nobody would have wanted to read anything I'd written over the past month or so! Somebody kidnapped my inspiration...

**Disclaimer: I don't own them. Shame really, I think it would be an experience for all involved...**

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She looks up. "What did you do now?"

"What makes you think I did anything?" he says with studied casualness.

She saves her file and raises her eyebrows. "You just fell on the sofa with a big sigh aimed at attracting my attention. You're either feeling guilty or hungry. Could go either way."

He grins. "Now you're cataloguing my sighs?"

"It's not difficult to classify intonations in people you know well. You know that."

He drums his fingers on the table.

She moves to sit beside him, covering his fingers to stop him. "So. Guilty or hungry? I'm going with the former, since you were eating when you called me earlier."

"Yup." He stares at the floor. "I, um, I missed prize-giving," he mumbles, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"For Parker?"

"No, for another kid I have that I've not told you about," he deadpans, staring at her in disbelief.

"Well, to be fair, you didn't tell me about him for a fair while," she points out. "Actually, I don't think it was even you who told me in the end."

"That's… That's irrelevant. Of course it was Parker's." He slumps down, stretching his legs out in front of him. "And now I'm in the dog house. I think I'll be there a while."

"He's mad?"

"He's kind of irate, I guess. But Rebecca's mad."

"Ah… So it's Rebecca who put you in the dog house?"

"Well and truly."

She pauses and he can tell she's thinking.

"Spit it out, Bones. What are you thinking?"

She bites her lip. "I don't think you want to know."

"I'm pretty sure I don't, but you might as well say it."

"I was wondering why the phrase isn't being in the kennel. After all, everyone refers to a dog house as a kennel. Makes sense."

"It… I don't think… Oh, come on. You can't go around saying you're in the kennel. It's just… Weird."

"You asked," she reminds him, reprovingly.

"Yeah. Remind me not to do that again."

"Why did you miss it?"

"The usual."

"Work? You didn't say anything to me, I wouldn't have stopped you going." She wonders briefly if he still thinks she is focused on work to the exclusion of all else.

"Not your fault. I forgot." He doesn't lift his head. "I actually forgot. It wasn't as though I weighed up two options and made a difficult choice. I didn't even remember."

She doesn't say anything immediately. She wants to reach out and squeeze his hand, but these new unspoken boundaries – the ones he has reinforced over the last few months – prohibit that. "What did he win?"

He snorts. "You'll love this one. Top mark in the class science project. You've got an apprentice."

She chuckles. "I don't think I see him enough for it to be my influence. He probably gets it from you."

He shakes his head. "He's a bright kid, Bones. Not my doing. Dunno where he gets it from – Rebecca would be the first to say she's not academic either."

This time she doesn't stop herself, twisting her palm under his and stroking the side of his hand with her thumb. "You're doing it again," she scolds him, gently. "We agreed to try a bit of positive thinking, remember?"

He laughs, but she still feels the pang as he carefully extricates his hand. "Trust you to hold me to it. Well, have you been reciting mantras about social niceties? I bet you haven't."

"No, but… I'm trying, you know. You haven't heard me deplore my social inadequacy in weeks. So you're not supposed to play down your own intelligence." She keeps her voice level.

"I'm not convinced this thing is working. Self-fulfilling whatsit isn't my thing."

"Self-fulfilling prophecy. And you're doing it again. You know what it's called, you're just playing to your devised character." He makes her angry when he does this. She doesn't need him to be stupid to value her own intelligence; and she's sure he doesn't need her to defer to his intuition. This is supposed to make them better for each other, not ingrain his habits.

He is silent, still staring at his outstretched legs. "Yeah, okay," he says, eventually.

"I know why you do it," she says, softly.

He lifts his head slightly. "Go on then, Freud."

Her raised eyebrows rebuke his flippancy, but she answers anyway. "You don't like being wrong. And you're afraid everybody thinks you're an idiot anyway. You think if you get it in before anyone else, if you play the stupid card, then it will stop anyone else saying it. Self-deprecation."

He taps his fingers on his knee, a nervous gesture she recognises. "'Play the stupid card.' I'm teaching you well," he mumbles.

She doesn't think before she takes his hand again, shifting closer to him. "And I see through it," she murmurs in his ear, deliberately letting her breath skim over his face.

Before he has a chance to react, she moves away from him, circling the sofa to stand behind him. "Besides," she says calmly, "everything we do to improve our understanding of each other gives us a better chance of success once you decide to erase that line you drew." She slides her hands over his shoulders until her fingers brush his chest, leaning down until her face is level with his. "Don't pretend, Booth," she whispers in his ear. "You're far too intelligent not to realise where this is going. And just so you know, the ball is in your court now." She presses her lips to his cheek only long enough to register the tilt of his face towards her. "Don't even think about congratulating me for the idiom," she breathes as she slips away from him.

She doesn't need to turn around to know he is staring after her. As she opens her office door to leave, she isn't surprised to hear the deep breath behind her.

"I'm not a science project for you, Bones…" is all she lets him get out before closing the door behind her.

It won't be long now, she tells herself. Given a few days to readjust his thinking, she knows his conclusion already.

Because she isn't as oblivious as she was three years ago – he has improved her.

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**You know the drill, read freely and review if you wish! Next chapter of 'Past Futures' should be up pretty soon - well, provided my inspiration sticks around!**


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